Now, Nesta was intensely anxious that Marcia should not go up to the house; there was great fun going on on the front lawn. A number of guests had been invited, and Molly and Ethel were having a right good time. Penelope and Nesta were to join them presently, but that was when Flossie arrived. They did not want Marcia—old Mule Selfish, as Nesta still loved to call her, to intrude her stupid presence into the midst of the mirth.
“I am so glad mother is better; I can tell the others all about her. What message have you got for them?”
“I have no message for them,” said Marcia somewhat coldly. “I am going up to the house—that is, if I may, Miss Carter?”
Marcia spoke with that sort of air which had such an effect on people slightly beneath herself. The Carters were beneath Marcia in every sense of the word, and they felt it down to their shoes, and rather disliked her in consequence.
“Of course, you must come up to the house,” said Penelope, although Nesta gave her such a fierce dig in the ribs for making the remark that she nearly cried out.
“I have come, Nesta,” said Marcia, in her kind voice, “to say that you and Molly and Ethel are expected home to-morrow. We have trespassed quite long enough on your kindness, Miss Carter,” she continued.
“Oh, indeed, you haven’t,” cried Penelope. “We like having them—they’re a right good sort, all of them. Not that I care so much for your precious Flossie Griffiths,” she added, giving Nesta a dig in the ribs in her turn.
“Oh, don’t you? That’s because you are madly jealous,” said Nesta.
The girls wrangled, and fell a little behind. Marcia continued her walk.
Molly had sworn to herself on that dreadful night, when her mother lay apparently dying, that she would never wear the pale blue muslin dress with its forget-me-not bows again. But circumstances alter one’s feelings, and she was in that identical dress, freshly washed, and with new forget-me-not bows, on this occasion. And she had a forget-me-not muslin hat to match on her pretty head. Ethel was all in white and looked charming. The girls were standing in a circle of other young people when Marcia appeared. Marcia went gravely up to them; spoke to the Carters, thanked them for their kindness, and then said quietly: